The game of baseball is learned early by youngsters in school, "little leagues" and general playground activities. Here, the youngsters practice catching the ball, swinging the bat, and playing a position on an organized team. Of course, there is a need for frequent practice to develop the hand/eye coordination needed to catch a ball, hit a pitched ball, and throw a ball to a designated spot. In the practice of catching a ball, there are "line drives" and "fast throws" where the ball travels as close to a straight line as possible, never reaching an elevation of more than 6-7 feet above the ground; and there are "fly balls" where the ball reaches a high elevation before gravity makes the ball turn and fall to earth through a curve that is close to parabolic. In practice these balls are usually propelled by one tossing the ball in the air and hitting it as it falls to earth with a swinging baseball bat. The batter is sufficiently skilled to hit the ball high, like a "fly ball" or low, like a "line drive". For practice at home or whenever there is no skilled batter available, it is difficult to provide the necessary speed and trajectory to provide a good practice session. It is the purpose of this invention to provide a practice baseball and softball for use in place of a batter and/or for use by a single player in simulating "pop-ups".
It is an object of this invention to provide a baseball and a softball for use in the practice of catching the balls, particularly those hit as a fly ball. It is another object of this invention to provide a ball that can be thrown to simulate different types of batted balls. Still other objects can be found in the more detailed description of the invention which follows.